Ubisoft Explains The Difference Between PS4 And Xbox One Versions of Watch_Dogs

Senior producer Dominic Guay talks design and scale for the open world adventure.

Call us spoiled or just exhausted by the amount of great looking games, but as of now, it’s getting tougher and tougher to see major graphical differences between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Nonetheless, all that extra power is going somewhere – and as noted by Watch_Dogs senior producer Dominic Guay, the PlayStation 4 and other next gen platforms are also helping to push for better design.

When we asked how far visual flourishes like larger crowds and scale would go towards making the PlayStation 4 version of the upcoming open world action adventure more recommended over current-gen versions, Guay stated that, “First, it starts with the content itself. Watch_Dogs strives to innovate technically but also on the front of design. While we think pushing immersion (which includes graphics) is important for our title, we do not think it is enough.

“We believe that our efforts to push dynamism in an open world, that our efforts to connect all players together in new ways are fundamentally geared toward fostering game experience innovation. Of course it also refers to our commitment to developing the game with a mind-set on fully supporting ‘next gen hardware’.

“This is true of the PS4 or other next-gen platforms using modern technology, as well as a certain range of PC hardware which offers similar capabilities. But ultimately, our engine DISRUPT has been designed to scale to different platforms. So as it supports also current gen platforms, you can expect the same game experience we want to offer with Watch_Dogs, whatever platform you will be playing on.”

Of course, the Xbox One isn’t to be counted out. We asked Guay how the Xbox One version of Watch_Dogs would be different compared to the PC and PS4 versions of the game, to which he replied that, “The Xbox One is a powerful platform, as of now we do not foresee a major difference in on screen result between the PS4 and the Xbox One. Obviously since we are still working on pushing the game on these new consoles, we are still doing R&D.

“This said, the platforms have some specificities that we are leveraging. For example, we are making use of the touchpad on the DualShock 4.”

Watch_Dogs will be releasing on November 19th for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U with the Xbox One and PS4 versions to release in Q4 2013.